Pages: (55-73 )
Abstract
This paper evaluated the impact of police brutality on
personal security in Nigeria. An extended objective was to
determine the influences that unemployment and poverty
have on the escalation of civil unrest. The study collected data
from the population of social media users in Lagos State,
utilising Virtual Snowball Sampling technique. Linear
regression analysis was used to test the formulated null
hypotheses that police brutality, unemployment and poverty
rates do not have a significant impact on the initiation and
escalation of the #EndSARs protest. The results of the
analysis revealed all the hypotheses had p-values < 0.5, which
led us to reject the null hypotheses in favour of the
alternatives. Hence, the study concluded that while
unemployment and poverty are not root causes of conflict,
they are exacerbating factors. From these findings, the study
recommended that there is need to diversify the economy
with a focus on entrepreneurship, and imbue the police force
with high degree of professionalism and adequate
remuneration to curb bribery and brutality
Keywords: Civil disobedience, #EndSARS, Poverty, Unemployment, Human Security, Personal Security,